NEA SHOULD NOT BE TAX EXEMPT!
by Jaxhawk Time To Take Away NEA's Tax exempt Status http://bp2.blogger.com/_sHBfjVGSFJA/R77bZOdusfI/AAAAAAAACYw/1FNlwkXap4A/s1600-h/knowledge.gif The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become teachers. The NEA has 3.2 million members and is headquartered in Washington DC. It employs over 550 staff and had a budget of more than $307 million in 2006-7! source: Wikapedia http://bp1.blogger.com/_sHBfjVGSFJA/R73FNOdusdI/AAAAAAAACYg/sDiLe8Q1RmE/s1600-h/180px-Karl_Marx.jpg In 1857 the National Education Association was founded as a professional organisation. In 1906 it received it's charter from Congress. In 1966 it merged with the National Association of Colored Teachers For years, the NEA pretended that it was not a union, and claimed to be opposed to teacher strikes. But that came to a halt in 159 when Wisconsin became the first state to pass legislation that allowed public employees to be involved in collective bargaining! The NEA's maleficent influence and political pressures on elected officials can never be completely and fully measured, but can be indicated by the words of its own spokesmen. In 1970, NEA President George Fischer said: "We will put the fear of God in politicians all over the country. We plan to make it political suicide to vote against kids and educations." And so it came to be. They play political "hardball". And since they joined hands with the AFL/CIO in 2006 they have been a strong opponent of school vouchers, merit pay and anything conservative! http://bp3.blogger.com/_sHBfjVGSFJA/R73FNuduseI/AAAAAAAACYo/hoz4d6r_0uQ/s1600-h/stalin.jpg One irony in all this is that the NEA's political lobbying is an open and direct violation of the federal tax law which gives it tax exemption. The Internal Revenue Service has never revoked that tax exemption. Today, we have created the most extensive and expensive educational system that has ever existed in the history of the world. Yet, it graduates thousands of young people who cannot spell, write a correct sentence, work a simple arithmetic problem, or read with understanding. They have no worthwhile skills. They do not even know the alphabet well enough to work effectively as file clerks. I know, because I have been forced by government mandated quotas to hire some of these young people who have been made "unenlightened". The present American educational system has left a generation of Americans largely ignorant of the moral, economic, political, and spiritual principles on which the greatness of our nation is founded. It has brainwashed a generation of Americans into accepting the illegal conversion of our Constitutional Republic into a tyrannical, inefficient socialist-welfare state. It scorns individual excellence and extols mass mediocrity. Can you really be sure your children won't come out any different? The National Education Association (NEA)--the 2.7 million member kingpin for much of the local teacher union activism--is spending as much as one-third of its $271 million annual income on politically related activities, according to an analysis of NEA documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The analysis was conducted by the Landmark Legal Foundation, a Virginia-based public interest group. Landmark has filed complaints seeking IRS collection of taxes for NEA political activities, since such activities do not qualify as tax-exempt. The filings show the NEA spends almost $50 million a year to fund a national advocacy staff called UniServ, the 1,800 directors of which help screen political candidates and then campaign for their election. State and local NEA affiliates spend an additional $43 million on the UniServ network. Mark Levin, Landmark president, contends the UniServ operatives are basically "precinct workers," and the NEA should have to pay income taxes on their activities. NEA officials counter such UniServ activities as helping NEA affiliates encourage their members to vote for "pro-public education advocates." Apple Inc. CEO, Steve Jobs, has criticized the NEA and other teacher unions for its lack of support for voucher programs, merit pay, and the removal of bad teachers. On February 17, 2007 at an education reform conference in Texas, Jobs said, "What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn’t get rid of people that they thought weren’t any good?” Also criticized by some is what they perceive as the NEA's promotion of the gay rights agenda, especially since the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals 2005 case Fields v. Palmdale School District.[ citation needed ] The court in that case ruled that parents' fundamental right to control the upbringing of their children "does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door," and that a public school has the right to provide its students with "whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise."[ citation needed ] NEA maintains that it does not “encourage schools to teach students to become gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered (GLBT),” but the Association does believe that schools should be safe for all students and advocates that schools should raise awareness of homophobia and intervene when GLBT students are harassed." But you don't find the NEA advocating the same awareness for religion or abstinence as a means for birth control and disease prevention! The IRS began auditing the National Education Association in in 2003. NEA has allocated millions of dollars to elect pro-education candidates while reporting on tax forms that it does not spend union dues on politics....The NEA has tax-exempt status as a union, but must report "direct and indirect" political expenses on its tax return. Some of those expenses could be considered taxable by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS defines a political expense as "one intended to influence the selection, nomination, election, or appointment of anyone to a federal, state, or local public office."...The documents were gathered by Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm that has filed complaints with the IRS seeking an audit and, more recently, a criminal investigation of whether the NEA evaded taxes! There is no doubt in my mind that they are evading taxes! Although NEA is active in all 50 states at this election time. The issue of school vouchers is a real threat to the monopoly the teachers union has on the education of our children, In Utah the NEA donated $1.53 million to the Utah Education Association as of Sept. 17. In addition to national support, the UEA also received $57,700 in small-dollar donations from Utah teachers and a couple of legislators, plus donations from the teachers’ unions in Maine, Colorado, Ohio, and Wyoming. An umbrella group of public school advocates, Utahns for Public Schools, collected thousands more in teacher donations. Some NEA Resolutions Passed at the 2007 Convention in Philadelphia illustrate the political agenda of NEA. Voucher Plans and Tuition Tax Credits. The Association opposes voucher plans, tuition tax credits, or other such funding arrangements that pay for students to attend sectarian schools. The Association also believes that any private school or agency that receives public funding through voucher plans, tax credits, or other funding/financial arrangements must be subject to all accountability measures and regulations required of public schools. A-33. Federally or State-Mandated Choice/Parental Option Plans. The Association believes that federally or state mandated parental option or choice plans compromise free, equitable, universal, and quality public education for every student. Therefore, the Association opposes such federally or state-mandated choice or parental option plans. B-1. Early Childhood Education. The National Education Association supports early childhood education programs in the public schools for children from birth through age eight. The Association also apparently isn't satisfied that they can begin to re-educate our children beginning in kindergarten. They are advocating taking the post natal care and education from the mother and giving it to their leftist organisation. Source"NEA report on resolutions", that also had these controversial issues. Increase respect, understanding, acceptance, and sensitivity toward individuals and groups in a diverse society composed of such groups as American Indians/Alaska natives, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Blacks, Hispanics, women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered persons. The Association supports access to financial aid and in-state tuition to state colleges and universities. The Association further believes that students who have resided in the United States for at least five years at the time of high school graduation should be granted amnesty by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, granted legal residency status, and allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship. Tell me with a straight face that this is not a political organization. What is worse, is that they are advocating destruction of the basic precepts of our Constitution in favor of secularist, relativist Marxist values that strike at the heart of the moral fabric of our Republic! __NOEDITSECTION__ Category: Opinions Category: Opinions by User Jaxhawk Category: February 22, 2008 Category: February 2008 Category: NEA Opinions Category: CRITICISM Opinions Category: TAXES Opinions Category: OPINION Opinions Category: POLITICS Opinions From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki. From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki.